Memes about logic and logical fallacies. How to not win a debate nor influence people.
Memes-Logic : 22 items
An Ad Hominem is a form of flattery. It shows that the person doesn't have anything intelligent to say about your message, and is conceding the argument, by attacking you instead.
An Ad Hominem attack? Wow, your argument must be really strong.
Do not correct a fool, or he will hate you. Correct a wise man, and he will appreciate you.
Feedback ref: flag on the play. I'm calling Bullshit!
Ad Hominem : If they don't have facts, many distract and ad hominem (attack the messenger), as a distraction. It shows that uncomfortable truths are beyond the attackers current ego carrying-capacity. "Great minds question ideas; average minds question events; small minds question sources."
Appeal to Authority - Science is skepticism. Consensus/popularity or assuming one expert trumps all the others, is politics. So you have a right to defer your responsibility as a thinking individual to someone who knows more than you on a topic: just don't assume that everyone else must do the same. "Cult of celebrity."
Bandwagon Fallacy - Following en mass doesn't make you a thinker. But if you don't know what you're talking about, at least there's comfort knowing that you're not alone. Science isn't consensus, science is what happened when one guy proves the consensus wrong.. "Agreeing with idiots doesn't make you all geniuses."
Begging the Question : Putting presumption of correctness into framing the argument, "Let's assume I'm right."... let's not.
Cherry Picking : Making a reasoned decisions is based on considering ALL the evidence at your disposal. Cherry picking is finding the outliers... and ignoring everything else. "Let us ignore all the facts that prove me wrong, and focus on this instead."
Citation needed : It's not that I don't trust you... but I don't trust anyone. So you should either support your argument, or welcome that I'm a critical thinker, responsible enough to ask you to support your point with some evidence that we can all trust. "Trust, but verify".
Echo Chamber : a bunch of idiots agreeing with each other, or trying to talk-over / ignore everything they don't like.
False Causality : Also called Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc ("After this, therefore because of this"). Examples: Homeopathic medicine. Bananas cause cancer, because most people that have cancer have eaten bananas. And Women cause you to get fat and grey, proven by what happened to me after marriage. Correlation is NOT causality!
Godwin's law : If any argument goes long enough, someone will compare someone/something to Hitler. Illegitimately comparing someone to Hitler is a Non-sequitur Fallacy. Incorrectly calling Godwin's law on someone who correctly compares something to Hitler/Nazi's/Fascists, is called a distraction fallacy.
Grammatician : A grammatical fallacy is usually just a distraction fallacy. When someone is forced to think about facts that make them uncomfortable, they'll desperately try to find something wrong with the argument. If not in the logic, they'll try the spelling/grammar to get others to chase the new shiny red ball.
Guilt by Association :Two things that share one trait, doesn't mean they share any other traits. Stop assuming otherwise. Just because most of Hillary's associates went to Prison, doesn't mean she was guilty too. But it does mean she's either a bad judge of character, or a bad character.
Moving the goalpost : When you can't win the argument, try to change what it was about! Lucy and the Football. It usually exposes the arguer as having a very fragile ego and a lot of insecurities.
Moving the goalpost : The history of Gun Control is a series of moving goalposts. Each of the 30,000 gun control laws has been the last reasonable thing they needed... until the next one. "When you can't win the argument, try to change what it was about!"
Non sequitur : Means: "it does not follow". Gun Control arguments like murders are higher in USA than UK or Japan, and Americans have more guns, therefor guns cause murders is a complete non-sequitur. Americans also have more blacks and latinos that commit those murders. Just like guns don't cause murder, neither do Blacks or Mexicans (but gangs and violent subcultures do).
Proof Reversal :The burden of proof resides with someone making a claim. Single payer, gun control, free college, progressive taxes, minimum wage increases, etc, will make things better? Prove it! Err on the side of liberty and the individual, to take those away demands proof.
Reductio ad absurdum : Reduction to absurdity is where the slippery slope meets the straw man fallacy. Someone claims that some drugs should be illegal, so the other person pretends that means that ALL drugs should be illegal. Or you ask your Italian Mom if you can get your ears pierced and she accuses you of wanting to look like a circus freak!"
Reductio ad absurdum : Reduction to absurdity is where the slippery slope meets the straw man fallacy. Someone claims that some drugs should be illegal, so the other person pretends that means that ALL drugs should be illegal. Or you ask your Italian Mom if you can get your ears pierced and she accuses you of wanting to look like a circus freak!"
Straw-man : rephrase the opponents argument into something more "winnable". Basically folks that use this once, might be an accident. People that use it twice in a discussion, are intellectual asshats.
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